Tag: note names

You’d like to think that you can hand a piano book to your child and their life would be forever enriched from the experience you’ve just provided them.

Nope.

The truth is the day you sign up for piano lessons is that day the student, mom, and dad get committed to practicing. It’s the only way it really works. If you’re ready to take on the challenge, here are a few ideas to get you pointed in the right direction.

1) Ask Questions – Ask your teacher what your child should be doing that week at the end of every lesson. Ask for a demonstration if you don’t understand. Maybe even sit at the piano yourself and try things out.

2) Set a Practice Goal – I like to ask students to practice 20 minutes a day for 5 day each week. Some days get busy, so every day might not be realistic. Five days a week should be.

3) Flash Cards – Help drill note names and rhythms with flash cards. Not knowing the note names and rhythms can be the most challenging part of playing the piano in the beginning.

4) Suppliment – Look for great pieces to suppliment your child’s music book. This can often stimulate an interest in practicing.

5) Praise – Let your kids know how much you enjoy it when they play the piano. A little praise goes a long way!

Like this:

Here’s a fun game for your music lab time or music camp. Suck It Up! divides groups of students in two teams, racing against each other to answer 10 unit review questions. The teams use straws to carry answers from the answer square table the game board table. The first team to get all 10 answers correct wins the game.

Review anything you like – Music Terms, Music Composers, Note Names, etc. The game is totally flexible.

Like this:

Looking for a fun way to drill note names and keyboard key names? Treble Clef kids has been a go-to solution for my students, and may be just what the doctor ordered for you and your students.

Music iPad App Review

While the graphics fall a bit short, the value of the drill and practice activities are worth the price of the app. The cheering and the funny sounds for wrong answers add an element of fun. It would also be nice to see a scoring system added to engage the kids a bit more.

Like this:

Here’s a music theory worksheet from OpusMusicWorksheets.com that you might be interested in.

It begins with the introduction of the treble clef, and provides students with an opportunity to draw it several times. The rest of the worksheet is devoted to identifying and writing notes in the treble clef.

Like this:

I like to end music lessons with a game/activity. One that I use often is a game that I made up many years ago. The basic goal of the activity is to get students to name the keys on the piano keyboard accurately and quickly.

Rules/Procedures

1) Tell students, “We are going to play a game. The first one to ten points wins.”

2) Tell students, “I will call out an alphabet letter. As quickly as you can, play the correct key. I will count to two, and then play the correct key. If you beat me, you get the point. If you play the wrong key, or I beat you, I get the point.”

3) Begin the game, tallying the score as you go. First one to 10 points wins the game.

Variation
You can also try a variation on this game by point to notes on the printed page if you would like to make note naming your goal. If you go this route, I find it helpful to limit the number of notes used during game play for younger students.